


The Road to Nowhere (Eventually Leads Somewhere)

by bees_stories



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angels Are Watching Over You, Angels are not Dicks, Complicated Relationships, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Lucid Dreaming, M/M, Monsters, Sleep Deprivation, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-09
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-11 09:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3322757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bees_stories/pseuds/bees_stories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nightmares and other terrors are plaguing Dean's sleep. Sam and Cas do what they can to break the curse as Dean tries to hang on.</p><p>Contains some minor league spoilers for Season 10.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road to Nowhere (Eventually Leads Somewhere)

***

Cas was taken aback. Sam had said that Dean was having a tough time and that he needed help. But having seen Dean in dire straits before, he thought he was prepared for the worst.

He was wrong. 

Dean's skin was sallow and the muscles of his face were so slack it seemed as if they was trying to slide off of his skull. There were deep lines cut around his mouth. He looked up from his folded hands and there was profound relief in his bloodshot and red-rimmed eyes as he tried to smile. "Hey, Cas. Thanks for coming." 

"Hey yourself. You look terrible." It wasn't what he meant to say, but it was the truth.

Dean shrugged. "Yeah, I know. So Sam keeps not telling me." 

Sam had explained about the witch and the curse, and the cure that was bubbling away, waiting for the light of the full moon before the last of its ingredients could be added, but he'd been vague when it came to why he was asking for help. He'd only said, 'Dean needs you', which was reason enough.

"What can I do?"

Dean took a breath and then he blew it out again. "The witch that hexed me, she screwed with my sleep. It's been a week, Cas. Every time I close my eyes – " He turned his gaze away, shook his head, and shuddered. "I can't do it alone. Which is why I'm hoping you can help." 

After all the times he'd come up short, Cas was eager to help. "Anything within my power to do. You know that, Dean." 

"I was hoping you'd say that." Dean took another deep breath, as if asking for help, even if it was freely given, wasn't easy for him. "Remember how you used to come to me in my sleep? Sometimes we'd talk. Sometimes … " 

What had started as a necessity – passing Dean information in the only way he could be sure that no one else would overhear – had become something more. In the privacy of Dean's dreams they'd forged the bond that had carried them through all the real life pain and sorrow. Cas nodded. "I remember." 

"I was hoping, now that you've got your mojo sort of working again, maybe if you were there … " Dean kept his eyes on his hands as he spoke. 

Cas felt deeply moved. What Dean was asking was no small thing. "Of course." 

"Good." Dean nodded. "Yeah. That was the easy part. Now for the hard one. Will you hold me while I sleep?" he asked softly, as if he was painfully embarrassed.

Cas stared for a second, completely taken aback. Even though they were tentatively reforging the bonds of their friendship, it was the last thing he expected Dean to ask of him. 

"If it's too much," Dean said. "I get it. Forget I – " 

"No!" Cas blurted. "I'd be honored to share your bed." 

Dean smiled, and there was something of his old, less careworn self in the bow of his lips. "Then lets find you some pjs, because I'm bushed."

***

Seeing Cas wearing a pair of his pajamas was weird, but it was a good kind of weird, and Dean was so punch drunk with fatigue, he was totally down with good weird. Next to Sam, Cas was the closest thing to family Dean had left. Even after all the bull crap they'd been through he was a true friend. He'd have to be to do this.

They looked at one another across the mattress. Cas made an 'after you' sort of hand gesture and Dean had a heavy duty urge to return it. It was his room and his bed and Cas was a guest. 

Cas's gaze narrowed as if he didn't quite get what was going on, but he had the impression that Dean was doing something stupid. Or getting cold feet and stalling. He took a step backwards, away from the bed, as if he wanted to give Dean the space he needed to change his mind. "If you're unsure about this – " 

Dean realized he was being a dipshit. "I'm not." He picked up the bedding on his side and got underneath it. A moment later, he felt the mattress dip as Cas did the same. They lay there, shoulders touching. Dean stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds, reassuring himself he wasn't a pussy for giving into his fears, and then he reached over and shut out the lights. 

Cas cleared his throat. "You said you required physical comforting." 

The fatigue trembling was bad during the day but almost unendurable at night. Dean needed someone to hold him because in the moments before he fell asleep, it felt like he was going to shake apart. He took a deep breath, because the shaking was making it hard for him to breathe, and then he rolled over into Cas's embrace. "Thanks." 

Cas stroked Dean's back and arms, soothing the jumping feeling away with a slow and gentle touch. "Sleep now. I'll see you on the other side." 

Dean took another deep breath. He let it out slowly, matching its release to the rate that Cas's palm traveled over his body. He felt his eyes grow heavy. The jumpy feeling receded, and he slept.

***

Cas frowned as he found himself in the passenger seat of the Impala. Dean was at the wheel, and they were traveling down a long stretch of vaguely familiar landscape. _Ramblin On_ was blasting out of the speakers. "Where are we?"He had to raise his voice to be heard over Robert Plant.

Dean shrugged as he turned down the volume. "I call it the Road to Nowhere. There are places like this all over the country. Stretches of highway so featureless that they could be anywhere, and so boring that it takes what seems like forever to get through them. This particular stretch is in Oklahoma."

"Why are we here?" Cas asked. 

Dean shrugged again. "I don't know exactly. Except a lot of times when I'm really tired, I come here. The scenery might be boring, but it's also relaxing. I guess my brain puts the Road to Nowhere on whenever it needs to unwind." 

Cas thought about it. He didn't really understand the mechanisms of dreaming any more than humans did. But Dean's logic had a certain ring of sense to it. "So what happens now?" 

Dean reflexively checked the rear view mirror. "Well, when I'm by myself, it's like in one of those slasher movies. I'm driving down the road, minding my own business, just chillin' and listening to my tunes, and then I almost, but not quite, see something out of the corner of my eye."

"And then?" 

"The usual. I get nervous. The phone rings. I can't quite hear who it is. Usually, Sam. Sometimes it's you, or Bobby. Anyway, I get another eyeful just as the connection drops and then … monsters." 

"Monsters?"

"Hookman. The Woman in White. A chupacabra once. You know. Monsters. And I start fighting. And I know I'm outmatched. And then things start not adding up, so I figure out I'm in a dream, and I try and wake up, and then I'm stuck. I'm not awake. I'm not asleep. I'm screaming my head off like a little girl – " He gave Cas a death glare. "If you tell anyone I told you that – " 

Cas put his hand to his lips and made a zipping motion. "It'll be our little secret." 

The glare remained for a couple of seconds and then Dean's expression became somewhat less guarded. "Anyway, long story short. I'm not awake. I'm not asleep. I'm stuck. Worst of both worlds. Every night since that witch hexed me."

"So you're hoping my presence will keep the nightmares at bay." 

Dean took his eyes from the endless stretch of road rolling out before them. "If I can get one decent night's sleep. That's all. Then I'll be able to suck it up until the cure's ready. So I thought, if we could just hang out, the way we used to. Sit on that old dock, maybe, and pretend to fish. Remember?"

Cas smiled. "I remember. You showed me how to rig a line. And then when you tried to teach me how to cast we got tangled – " 

Dean smiled too. "Good times." 

The scenery shifted. The road became tree lined and Dean seemed a lot happier than when they'd first arrived in the dreamscape.

***

The potion was bubbling away, slowly turning from a pale shade of blue to one closer to midnight. When it was black as pitch, according to the lore book where they had found the recipe, it would be ready to say the final incantation over and be administered. Until then, all Sam could do is watch as his brother found a new way to fall apart.

And worry. 

At least Cas had arrived. Although what Dean wanted him for wasn't exactly clear. Since he was living on borrowed grace, Cas wasn't powerful enough to find the witch who had cursed Dean. Maybe Dean was hoping Cas could use his grace and break the spell. He was that desperate. 

Sam glanced at his watch and frowned. Cas had been with Dean for over an hour and he hadn't checked in with a situation report. He went down the hallway to Dean's room and hesitated before knocking on the door. 

No one answered. 

Sam felt his gut twinge. Maybe he was being over anxious, but he turned the door handle and peered inside. 

The room was dark and Dean was asleep, peacefully, wrapped in Cas's arms. 

Sam backed out of the room and shut the door behind him. He leaned against the wall and tried to process what he'd just seen, but his eyes and brain couldn't quite mesh. Mental gears grinding, he went back to the main hall and poured himself a drink.

***

They were sitting on the dock in matching beat up aluminum and canvas camp chairs, a cooler between them. Their unbaited lines dangled in the water, completing the pretense of fishing. They had no intention of catching anything other than a few rays and their breaths.

Dean adjusted his sunglasses against the glare of a bright summer's sun and then took a long swallow of beer. "Now this is what I'm talking about." 

Cas smiled back. It was the simplicity of the scenario that was its chief allure. Beautiful scenery. The companionship of a friend. No need to say anything, because just being in the moment was enough. "I've missed this." 

He held his bottle out and Dean used his to complete the toast. "Yeah. Me too. The last few years – " He shook his head. "I don't know, man, they've been harsh." 

An understatement, if there ever was one. "To better days, then?" Cas suggested, and they toasted once again. 

Without warning, the sky grew dark. Black clouds swarmed from nowhere turning the sun blood red before obscuring it entirely. The wind churned the water, turning the placid lake into a swirling pool. 

"Damn it!" Dean yelled over the howl of the wind. The chair he was sitting in tipped over, despite his weight, and he held on to Cas to keep them both from being swept into the maelstrom. 

Protectively, Cas hauled Dean into his embrace. He flared his wings and then rose to his feet, eyes glowing with power. With a wave of his hand, he calmed the waters and banished the storm clouds. 

_This man is under my protection._ he announced, putting the full power of his angelic nature behind the words. He looked around for the cause of the threat, both in the dreamscape and in the real world. 

The witch was sitting on a white cloth decorated with magical symbols and runes on the floor of a motel room in Gary, Indiana. Her face was tilted upward, gazing sightlessly at the ceiling as she twisted Dean's happy dream into a horrific nightmare.

Cas assessed the situation rapidly. The witch's curse had opened a door into Dean's subconscious. She was using that door to travel into Dean's dreams and then torment him. "I'll be right back." He drew a ring of angelic protection around Dean and then winged out of the dream ... 

… And arrived at the Motel 6. The witch, still in her trance, was helpless. Castiel kicked over a candle, breaking the ring of power, and then trod on the flame as it ignited the the symbol-covered cloth. He hauled the witch to her feet and transported her back to the bunker.

***

"I believe this is the source of Dean's problem."

Sam stared in disbelief at the witch dangling by the scruff of her long, pale gray robes. "Uh, yeah. She matches the description Dean gave me. Where did you – "

"Gary, Indiana." Cas raised his fist. "She was using this." There was a hex bag in his other fist. 

Sam took it carefully. If they destroyed the hex bag then at least one of Dean's problems would be solved. 

"Why did you do it?" Cas demanded. His voice was harsh with suppressed anger. 

"Tit for tat," the witch replied, with a surprising amount of dignity considering her predicament. "He got under my feet, I was just repaying the favor." She turned to Cas. "Speaking of which – " She glanced up at his fist, and then down at the floor. 

Cas gave her a warning look, but lowered her to the ground.

"I want a better explanation than that," Sam said. He pulled a lighter from his pocket and put a flame to the hex bag. It flared and then disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.

The witch sighed and straightened the cowl of her robes. She radiated a aura of power and grave dignity and Sam felt a strong urge to lower his eyes rather than look at her directly. "You killed a sister of the Grand Coven."

"You mean that bitch that was turning adults into kids and then eating them?" Sam blurted incredulously.

The witch shook her head. "Oh dear. Old habits do die hard, don't they." She looked up at Sam and her expression was apologetic. "I didn't know." Her expression changed, becoming matter of fact. "Petty foibles aside, she was on an important mission, tracking a witch who's gone a bit off the rails." 

"Rowena," Sam said. 

The witch frowned. "You know her." 

Sam nodded. "We've had our run ins." 

"It sounds as if there was some sort of misunderstanding. If you're both seeking this Rowena then perhaps you have common ground." Cas looked at the witch sternly, and his eyes flared brilliant blue. "Not that that excuses what you did to Dean." 

The witch was the one to lower her eyes. "Perhaps we did get off on the wrong foot. I had no idea the hunter was in league with such powerful friends." She raised her gaze and looked around the library, assessing its potential. "It is possible, we might do better if we pooled our resources." 

Sam had to acknowledge that maybe the witch had a point. He glanced at Cas, who gave him a fractional nod. "Why don't you return her to Gary?" Cas said. "I'll tend to Dean and then we can regroup." 

Sam bit down the protest that rose automatically. A road trip with the witch who had put a whammy on his brother didn't exactly sound like the best of ideas, but Cas had a point. Any lead was better than none. "Yeah. Okay." He picked up his jacket and the pistol sitting on the table next to it, and tilted his head. "The garage is this way."

***

Cas watched the two unwilling allies depart and then he sagged against the table. Flexing his angelic muscles had cost him more than he was comfortable admitting. He took a moment to catch his breath and then slowly pulled himself upright. He was grateful when he finally reached Dean's room.

He was sleeping, peacefully. For a long moment, Cas looked down upon him, absorbed by the slow rise and fall of Dean's chest, and then he roused himself long enough to strip away his top coat and trousers. The pajamas were gone, lost somewhere between the Kansas and Indiana. Cas knew, when the situation was explained to him, Dean would forgive their loss. He climbed back into the bed, lay his head against Dean's chest, so that he could hear the slow, calming beat of his heart, and closed his eyes.

***

Dean woke. He was warm and comfortable, even if there was an unaccustomed weight resting against his chest. He looked down. Cas was asleep. Out cold. And for some reason, he was wearing a dress shirt.

Dean frowned at that, and then he mentally shrugged. This was Cas. Nothing he ever did was normal. Going to bed in pajamas and waking up – 

Dean lifted the sheet. Yeah. That was a bare leg against his. 

He wasn't sure he wanted to know. 

Actually, considering he felt like he'd had one of the best night's sleep in his life, he was pretty sure he didn't care. 

He settled Cas a little more comfortably, impulsively kissed the top of his head, and closed his eyes. 

Hell, if they were lucky, maybe the Road to Nowhere would take them to the Oregon Coast.

end


End file.
